Marco: In general, style guides encourage consistency in user interfaces and in that way can make UIs easier to use. However, a style guide can%u2019t guarantee usability of the _overall interface_ because it usually concentrates too much only on low-level design issues. If your developers are not also the guys who design the UI, I mean if they just implement the software based on UI spec/storyboards etc, they might benefit from using a style guide because they still need to do some low-level design decisions. But, if this is not the case (well, also if it is ;)), I%u2019d suggest you to create a UI design pattern resource instead, which is useful both in the UI design and development phases.
Unlike style guides and guidelines, patterns explicitly focus on context of use and tell the designer when, how and why the solution can be applied. Patterns capture a common structure, usually a very familiar one that is easy to recognize, without being too concrete on the details, giving the flexibility to be creative, unlike style guides. Here are some links that helps you to create a UI design pattern library: Implementing a Pattern Library in the Real World: A Yahoo! Case Study by Erin Malone and Matt Leacock and Chanel Wheeler (2005) http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/implementing_a_pattern_library_in_the_real_world_a_yahoo_case_study An inside look at the Pattern Library (see the video) http://yuiblog.com/blog/2007/12/07/pattern-library-brown-bag/ My master%u2019s thesis: Developing a UI design pattern Library - A Case Study http://users.tkk.fi/~i80706/dippa/Thesis_janne_lammi.pdf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss?post=24159 ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
